GH¢4.7bn spent to keep the lights on, pay inherited 'questionable' power contracts – Ofori-Atta

The Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, has revealed that a lot of investment has been made to ensure the lights are kept on for both domestic and commercial purposes.

He told Parliament during the presentation of the mid-year budget review on Thursday, 23 July 2020 that the current government also paid the energy sector debts left by the Mahama administration as a result of some “questionable” power contracts which the previous government signed with some private power producers.

He said: “We have enjoyed three-and-a-half years of reliable and cheaper power”, Mr Ofori-Atta said.

“We have spent in excess of GHS4.7 billion on capacity payment to ensure that we keep the lights on and also to pay for power we do not use under various questionable contractual obligations we inherited”, he added.

Mr Ofori-Atta further told Parliament that the current government has successfully digitised the economy, making it easier for businesses to be located within the country.

This, he said, has also ensured modernity in the way of conducting business in the oil-producing West African nation

“To modernise the economy in this global competitiveness, we embarked on a transformative agenda, digitising the economy. We implemented the digital addressing system and the national ID programme to ensure each Ghanaian and business location will be duly identified. All these have been made to formalise the economy,” he said.